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Owning a store can be a dream come true for those who want to work for themselves and take entrepreneurial risks. If you plan to purchase your very own business, understand that a lot of responsibility accompanies the title of store owner. Your exact duties will differ depending on how many employees you're overseeing, and what type of store you plan to own.

Manage the Managers or the Store

One of your primary duties will be to manage the store's daily operations. If you've hired one or more managers, you'll need to keep an eye on them and make sure they're doing a satisfactory job. If you've decided to manage the store yourself, you'll need to perform all of the functions required of a manager: providing customer service; ensuring that shelves are fully stocked; and directly overseeing, managing and disciplining lower-level employees.

Financials

As the owner, you'll be ultimately responsible for, and have the most vested interest in, the financial success of the store. This means that you must track information about profits and losses and make important decisions about pricing and marketing strategies. You may also be responsible for keeping track of receipts and day-to-day financials. This is the facet of owning your own store that most frequently involves a lot of paperwork.

Vision

Remember, your other employees are likely to be hourly or salaried; it's you who'll succeed or fail with the store. It's up to you to make sure that you attract enough customers, and that means designing and maintaining a vision for the store. Decide which demographic you want to target, then purchase inventory to appeal to your chosen market, and arrange it in a way that your targeted customers will find pleasing.

Hours

Keep in mind that you may not be working a basic 9-to-5 schedule as the owner of your store. When something goes wrong after hours, or accounts need to be brought up to date, it's on you to make sure that what needs to happen, happens. The hours you work may be dependent on how many employees you have. For instance, the owner of a sporting goods store reported to website JobShadow.com that while he used to work between 50 and 60 hours a week, giving more responsibilities to his managers has allowed him to cut back to between 25 and 30 hours a week.